scholarly journals Stable isotopes dissect food webs from top to the bottom

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 14923-14952 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Middelburg
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Nitrogen Isotopes ◽  
Web Studies ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
End To End ◽  
Small Producers

Abstract. Stable isotopes have been used extensively to study food web functioning, i.e. the flow of energy and matter among organisms. Traditional food-web studies are based on the natural variability of carbon and nitrogen isotopes and are limited to larger organisms that can be physically separated from their environment. Recent developments allow isotope ratio measurements of microbes and this in turn allows then measurement of entire food webs, i.e. from small producers at the bottom to large consumers at the top. Here, I provide a concise review on the use and potential of stable isotope to reconstruct end-to-end food webs. I will first discuss food web reconstruction based on natural abundances isotope data and will then show that the use of stable isotopes as deliberately added tracers provides complementary information. Finally, challenges and opportunities for end-to-end food web reconstructions in a changing world are discussed.

scholarly journals Stable isotopes dissect aquatic food webs from the top to the bottom

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2357-2371 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Middelburg
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Web Studies ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
End To End ◽  
Aquatic Food ◽  
Small Producers ◽  
Web Reconstruction

Abstract. Stable isotopes have been used extensively to study food-web functioning, that is, the flow of energy and matter among organisms. Traditional food-web studies are based on the natural variability of isotopes and are limited to larger organisms that can be physically separated from their environment. Recent developments allow isotope ratio measurements of microbes and this in turn allows the measurement of entire food webs, in other words, from small producers at the bottom to large consumers at the top. Here, I provide a concise review on the use and potential of stable isotopes to reconstruct end-to-end food webs. I will first discuss food web reconstruction based on natural abundances isotope data and will then show that the use of stable isotopes as deliberately added tracers provides complementary information. Finally, challenges and opportunities for end-to-end food web reconstructions in a changing world are discussed.

scholarly journals Assessing the utility of sulfur isotope values for understanding mercury concentrations in water and biota from high Arctic lakes

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gretchen L. Lescord ◽  
Meredith G. Clayden ◽  
Karen A. Kidd ◽  
Jane L. Kirk ◽  
Xiaowa Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Webs ◽  
Total Mercury ◽  
Nitrogen Isotopes ◽  
Sulfur Isotopes ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Arctic Lakes ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Resolute Bay ◽  
Aquatic Food ◽  
Globally Stable

Methylmercury (MeHg) biomagnifies through aquatic food webs resulting in elevated concentrations in fish globally. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes are frequently used to determine dietary sources of MeHg and to model its biomagnification. However, given the strong links between MeHg and sulfur cycling, we investigated whether sulfur isotopes (δ34S) would improve our understanding of MeHg concentrations ([MeHg]) in Arctic lacustrine food webs. Delta34S values and total mercury (THg) or MeHg were measured in water, sediments, and biota from six lakes near Resolute Bay, NU, Canada. In two lakes impacted by historical eutrophication, aqueous sulfate δ34S was ∼8‰ more positive than sedimentary δ34S, suggestive of bacterial sulfate reduction in the sediment. In addition, aqueous δ34S showed a significant positive relationship with aqueous [MeHg] across lakes. Within taxa across lakes, [THg] in Arctic char muscle and [MeHg] in their main prey, chironomids, were positively related to their δ34S values across lakes, but inconsistent relationships were found across entire food webs among lakes. Across lakes, nitrogen isotopes were better predictors of biotic [THg] and [MeHg] than δ34S within this dataset. Our results suggest some linkages between Hg and S biogeochemistry in high Arctic lakes, which is an important consideration given anticipated climate-mediated changes in nutrient cycling.

scholarly journals The use of DNA barcodes in food web construction—terrestrial and aquatic ecologists unite!

Genome ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (9) ◽  
pp. 603-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Roslin ◽  
Sanna Majaneva
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Taxonomic Resolution ◽  
Dna Barcodes ◽  
Food Web Structure ◽  
Web Studies ◽  
Web Structure ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
Web Construction ◽  
Interaction Webs

By depicting who eats whom, food webs offer descriptions of how groupings in nature (typically species or populations) are linked to each other. For asking questions on how food webs are built and work, we need descriptions of food webs at different levels of resolution. DNA techniques provide opportunities for highly resolved webs. In this paper, we offer an exposé of how DNA-based techniques, and DNA barcodes in particular, have recently been used to construct food web structure in both terrestrial and aquatic systems. We highlight how such techniques can be applied to simultaneously improve the taxonomic resolution of the nodes of the web (i.e., the species), and the links between them (i.e., who eats whom). We end by proposing how DNA barcodes and DNA information may allow new approaches to the construction of larger interaction webs, and overcome some hurdles to achieving adequate sample size. Most importantly, we propose that the joint adoption and development of these techniques may serve to unite approaches to food web studies in aquatic and terrestrial systems—revealing the extent to which food webs in these environments are structured similarly to or differently from each other, and how they are linked by dispersal.

scholarly journals Food web structure in a double-basin ultra-oligotrophic lake in Northwest Patagonia, Argentina, using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes

Limnologica ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Arcagni ◽  
Linda M. Campbell ◽  
María Angélica Arribére ◽  
Kurt Kyser ◽  
Kerry Klassen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Oligotrophic Lake ◽  
Nitrogen Stable Isotopes ◽  
Food Web Structure ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Web Structure

The structure of a food web in a tropical rain forest in Malaysia based on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios

2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fujio Hyodo ◽  
Takashi Matsumoto ◽  
Yoko Takematsu ◽  
Tamaki Kamoi ◽  
Daisuke Fukuda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Food Web ◽  
Food Webs ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Tropical Rain Forest ◽  
Stable Isotope Ratios ◽  
Trophic Groups ◽  
Nitrogen Stable Isotope ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Below Ground

Abstract:Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) have been used to study the structure of food webs. However, few studies have examined how a terrestrial food web can be depicted by this technique. We measured δ13C and δ15N in various consumers of four trophic groups (detritivores, herbivores, omnivores and predators), including vertebrates and invertebrates (14 orders, ≥24 families), as well as canopy and understorey leaves in a tropical rain forest in Malaysia. We found that δ13C and δ15N of the consumers differed significantly among the trophic groups. The predators had significantly higher δ13C than the herbivores, and were similar in δ13C to the detritivores, suggesting that most predators examined depend largely on below-ground food webs. δ15N was higher in predators than detritivores by about 3‰. The comparison of δ13C in plant materials and herbivores suggests that most herbivores are dependent on C fixed in the canopy layers. The vertebrates had significantly higher δ15N and δ13C than the invertebrates of the same trophic group, likely reflecting differences in the physiological processes and/or feeding habits. This study indicates that stable isotope techniques can help better understanding of the terrestrial food webs in terms of both trophic level and the linkage of above- and below-ground systems.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document